Friends of Medicare gets results on artificial limb file

Certainly I have never seen such fast change of policy by this government! On December 16th Friends of Medicare forwarded a Blue Cross "Benefact" bulletin to the Edmonton Journal stating that as of December 1st, seniors would have to pay for prosthetic, orthotic, mastectomy prothesis and eye prosthesis, or submit for claims based on a means test. One day after the story appeared, the government changed this policy so that prosthetics would be covered after all! Thanks to Calgary Orthotist Ken Moghadam who identified this change of policy to us.

Senior's health seems to be an early target of this government in their quest for extra-billing, the de-listing of services and the expansion of private for-profit medicine. Score one victory for public health care! Albertans know they are better off with public health care - how come Mr. Stelmach is the last one to figure this out? Here is the Edmonton Journal article from December 18th:

EDMONTON - The Alberta government said Thursday that it is not planning to charge disabled seniors for artificial limbs after all and that it was all a big mistake.
Sonia Maryn, a spokeswoman for Alberta Seniors and Community Supports, said the government never planned to start charging seniors a percentage of the cost of the devices they now get for free, but sent out the wrong information to providers of the services last week and failed to correct it Wednesday when contacted by The Journal.
“We provided you with wrong information,” she said. “Seniors will continue to be covered. There will be no cost-sharing.”
She said a bulletin sent out to orthotists and prosthetists last week contained “wrong information” when it suggested new patients over 65 would be required to pay 25 per cent of the cost of braces, limbs, mastectomy prostheses and eye prostheses - up to $500 annually.
“We really do need to apologize,” Maryn said.
“There was an awful lot of information. There was one piece that made it way incorrectly out the door.”
She said Seniors and Community Supports Minister Mary Anne Jablonski is fully committed to supporting seniors in need.
“By no means is she intending to take away orthotics or prosthetics,” she said. “It’s really regrettable.”
On Thursday morning, irate seniors began calling Alberta Health, which was previously responsible for program, to express their concern about the change in policy.
Orthotist David Mueller said he received an e-mail from Alberta Seniors today suggesting there had been a “miscommunication.”
“It sounds like they have done a complete reversal since you wrote this article,” he said. "They clearly made some lines in the sand and now they have erased those lines."
Clare Botsford, 86, said she couldn’t believe the government would charge disabled seniors for necessary medical devices.
“People who voted Tory should be ashamed of themselves,” she said. “It’s just so sneaky and underhanded. It’s hard to believe.”
Irene Payne, 79, said she is convinced the government was planning to charge seniors until the story broke in the newspaper.
"They must have got a lot of calls," she said. "I phoned a couple of my friends and they were just fuming."